The Jungle Expedition
by farleydunlop'04
Summary: What happens when you take two guys, a snobby mage, a spidren, and a girl in disguise and send them on a journey deep into the uncharted Carthaki southern jungles?
1. Paulm Where it all began

_Dramatis Personae:_

Euluck- Euluck is Paulm's Horse. Euluck is a very shifty character. An enormous black stallion with sparkling green eyes, he takes no crap from anyone.

Paulm- The leader of the expedition. He himself actually has no Gift or nothing, but holds the group together through his intelligence and planning.

Wyvern- Chase's fierce mare that will fight to the finish. She is a strange reddish-golden color with green-yellow eyes.

Chase- Chase is a boy with a love for sunbirds. Other than Chase's strange kinship with sunbirds, he is relatively normal.

Hommin- Hommin, a personal friend of Numair's, shares the black robes' love for learning and Numair's great power. He is a war and fire mage. Of course, he is even more vain and finicky than his comrade, and lazy to boot!

Kamm- Kamm is a slightly more peaceful sort of spidren who is seeking the supposed spiderin paradise, Wos. Although mistrusted by the other group members, he actually might be for good.

Kelsey- Kelsey is a relatively normal girl. She is brave and kind, but loathes Kamm. This is because that her family was captured by spidrens. She believes that they are in Wos.

Coral- Coral is the small red pony of Kelsey.

Bome- Bome is Kamm's horse.

M'nall- M'nall is the brave woman who agrees to guide the travelers as far as she knows through the jungle. She has the Gift.

Paulm studied the applicant. He appeared to be around thirteen or fourteen at most. He started taking notes. "Have you any experience in the field of wilderness survival?" The boy studied Paulm for a long time before giving his answer. "Yes, sir. I have honestly been keeping myself alive using wilderness survival for the last six months." Paulm nodded, but frowned inside. Was this boy a runaway? Was he applying because he truly wanted to explore the uncharted Southern Carhaki jungles, or to escape his parents? "Are you experienced in any kinds of weapons?" The boy nodded. "Staff, crossbow, longbow, shortbow, recurved bow, you name it." Slightly nervous at this part of the test, Paulm handed the applicant a long knife. "Tell me boy, what is this?" The boy stared at it. "It is a machete." Paulm nodded, impressed. Few people from the Northern Lands, or even from northern Carthak knew what that blade was. Reading the boy's application, Paulm was obviously impressed. This boy would be an asset to their team. The boy's Common was impeccable. He knew shorthand, and was a good artist. Also, he knew a little Carthaki, which would be necessary. Paulm was a decent speaker of Carthaki, but another man on their team would help. He smiled warmly at the boy. "Alright, you're in! You just have to pass the physical." The boy went through the hearing and vision tests without a flaw. His face, feet, and legs were in excellent condition. "Alright boy, just take off your shirt. It's a standard procedure, you see. I need to check for scars." The boys' eyes narrowed, then he ran outside. He called, "Sorry, be back in three weeks for a trip! I just have to leave right now… You know, nature calls!" Paulm rolled his eyes. There was little room for modesty on such an expedition. Paulm figured that he could whack it out of him, though.


	2. Chase Some See Sunbirds

"Chase!" The boy being addressed stared up from his paper, where he had idly been drawing sunbirds, his favorite animals. It was strange for such an otherwise normal boy to love them so much. His teacher narrowed his eyes at him. Although the public school system was an innovative move that had caused many people to love King Jonathon III, Chase almost preferred the old ways. He looked up from his drawing, thankful that he would soon be rid of this dump. In three weeks exactly. He had never been to Carthak, or indeed outside the village of Bane's Park. Bane's park was located in Trebond, which now prided itself on being Alanna's homeland. He wished that he had been born in _any _other fief, _any! _Most of his school's curriculum consisted of long studies on the Lady Knight. At the end of every year, Alanna actually came to speak to them. Chase could care less, which was another strange thing about him. The girls had been waiting to meet their idol, and some of the guys were interested in her for slightly more hormonally-based reasons. In fact, Alanna was gracing the class with her presence in less than three hours time. The last thought was bitter sarcasm. If Alanna was so important to Trebond, why did she never go there? Indeed, Coram, now well into his fifties, was the grizzled caretaker of the fief. It was a well known fact that Alanna came only once a year. Why did she care so little for Trebond? Why? Why? _Why? _Chase's teachers' voice cut through his musings.

"Pay attention Chase!" Seeing what Chase was drawing brought a leering, wry smile to his lips. "Chase, I believe we have covered sunbirds three moons ago! And what happens when we're not being obedient to the rules?" Chase muttered the phrase from the educational regulations, "We get… punished." The mistake in this quote was not realized until it was too late. Eyes flashing, the teacher stood up. "CHILDREN ARE NOT PUNISHED, CHASE! THEY ARE _CORRECTED!_" Chase did what was required, and walked to the front of the classroom. He turned around. "Shirt off," said the teacher, and he took it off and faced the wall, as the classroom regulations stated for what was about to occur. At the beginning of the year, girls had giggled and laughed when the boys took off their shirts, but now, they had nothing to laugh at, unless they were amused by scars. Chase had scars up and down his back. All because of the sunbirds. Chase looked outside, to the sky, where if he squinted, that hawk was a sunbird of hope flying toward him…

With a cruel smile playing around thin lips, the teacher nodded, and three boys each took a board behind their desks, and boarded up the window. Before he could help it, his mouth again ran unchecked. "Why do we shut the windows if we have nothing to hide?" The teacher only smiled harder. Chase winced and let out a hissed breath as the teacher ran his fingers along a gash on his left side that went far deeper. This scar was when he called his teacher a 'Stormwing.' Although he had only half known what that insult meant (he was, at the time, only ten), he was beaten hard. The teacher turned to Chase's right side, and with a grin that would put Duke Roger to shame, said, "I'll give you one to match." He clapped, and a boy ran up with the strips of leather that formed a whip. With a clap, the students came, and dunked it into freezing water. After five minutes, it emerged, hard, brittle, and cold. With this, the painful enough wounds became almost deadly.

_Thwack! _One was over, he said to himself, eyes painfully shut. _Thwack! _He moaned in pain, about to keel over, until he remembered that'd give him two more. _Thwack! _The pain birds were flying around him, and unlike his sunbirds were ominously black. _Thwack! _Almost halfway, he said, perspiration mixing with tears of cold fear; trepidation. _Thwack! _He was halfway done with the whip that was cold as ice and hot as sun. _Thwack! _More than halfway with the torture, he wondered if sanity he did lack. _Thwack! _His sunbirds were coming closer as hope did not blind him from pain, but just opened his eyes. _Thwack! _He had taken his punishment without screaming, as was Teacher's rule. He called this an Ordeal.

His teacher, leering at him, satisfied, stared at him. "Was that a punishment?" Chase knew the answer was yes, but it was 'no' in the whipholders' eyes. About to respond, he opened his mouth, until a different voice said,

"Yes." Staring around, angry for interruption the teacher found himself drowning in violet eyes; mercy there was none! Indeed had the Lioness witnessed 'correction' and found it to not be quite nice.

Chase's eyes flared with anger, and the Lioness looked surprised. "Why are you angry at me, boy?"

Before Chase knew what he was doing, he screamed at the King's Champion. "My name is Chase!" Looking rather taken aback, she asked, "How was I supposed to know?" Chase glared. "You could have bothered to ask!" He paused. "Why I am angry is that you just watched. You could have said something and helped me, not just waited until the damage is done!" Alanna was ashamed all of a sudden.

"Chase, do you know how to take care of horses?" She figured, no, she _knew _that the boy deserved better than this. He would learn much more being Darkmoon's son, Starshine's groom, than being in this school. Instead of being grateful, Chase narrowed his eyes.

"Talk to the King. Tell him about the shit that they are putting us through. I am one person, but we are many." He gestured around the classroom. Alanna realized that _all _of them deserved better than this. "Besides, three weeks from now I depart to explore the southern Carthaki jungle." Alanna raised an eyebrow. She pulled something out of her pocket. It was an ornate dagger that was a present from the Bazhir Bloody Hawk tribe. It was an ornate dagger that had a bronze and golden hawk as a handle. The bird had a ruby eye. Where some see hawks, others see sunbirds, and it was the best present in Chase's life.


	3. Kamm: The Blood is Better on the Other s...

Chapter 3: Spidren's Tears

The girl picked up a rock, feeling for the sharp end. She pointed that away from her, toward her target. Unfortunately, Kelsey's aim was pathetic. She missed by a yard! Her foe laughed at her. To her, it sounded cold and bloodthirsty, the laugh of a villain. This was a spidren, and everyone in Tortall knew that these arachnids _were _the enemy! She hated spidrens. They had kidnapped her family. There was Ma, and Pa, and her lovely mare, Moonlight. She loved the pure white horse that had been all her own. The last she saw of it, she was being ridden by two spidrens, who laughed when she tried to buck. Their laughs rang in her head, and they sounded exactly like the laugh of the spidren that taunted her now. She had been perfectly fine, as she walked into the garden shed, but imagine the way her heart raced when she saw a _spidren _sitting there! The head of the spidren was that of a boy about her age; around thirteen or fourteen years old. As he laughed at her, he showed off his pointed silvery teeth, which were stained with blood.

"Go away and don't come back, spidren _freak!_ I hate you! If you stay here, I'll kill you!" She smiled as she knew that it was a lose-lose situation for the spidren. King Jonathon had just recently approved, of all things, an organized spidren hunt. Knights were out there every day, and most nights too if they didn't want to waste their money for an inn, scouring the countryside for spidrens. She picked up a broom, and hit him over the head with it. She started sweeping at him with the broom, which was composed of hard wooden twigs. She smiled to see him wince. "Out, out!" she cried, laughing to see the fear in his eyes. Eventually, he scampered out as fast as his eight spindly legs would take them. She looked outside a window and laughed. One woman carrying a basket of eggs on the street saw him passing by, and threw and egg at him. It cracked all over his face. Soon, the produce seller took some of his wares, distributed them to any teenage male passerby that happened to be in the area, and they pelted the immortal with tomatoes. One fat woman finally dropped an enormous wheel of cheese on his heads, and she screamed, "Take that you scurvy cur! Immortals can die!" Soon the entire village was cheering that last sentence, pumping their fists up and down with gusto. Slowly, the cheese lifted up, and all grew silent. The spidren threw the cheese to one side, as it splattered onto the ground harmlessly. The immortal glared coldly at everyone, and they stared back fearfully. Although the street leading out of their village was lined with villagers on both sides, not one of them dared do anything but watch as he calmly walked out. Little did they know, the moment that he was out of their eyesight, the spidren broke into a run.

Kamm ran quickly into the surrounding forest, and sat by a stream. A blood red tear dripped into the still water, creating ripples of reddish-pink. Why did everybody hate him so much? And especially that girl! She was about his age; what was wrong with he, he thought, to make her hate him so? He stared at his eight long, spindly legs, and knew why. He was part spider, of course. His black furry arachnine body was full of magic. Through his abdomen or his mouth, he could cause a magical web to shoot out. It glowed by night, but was invisible by day. It would catch all who touched it. The blood in his veins would burn like acid to the touch. He could climb trees, or even vertical surfaces with ease, and he could jump to heights and lengths impossible to humans and spiders both. Unlike most of his kind, though, he had no magic other than his webs. But, he had something better. His blood, unlike the rest of his kind, would forever replenish itself. Most immortals had this ability of his also. That was why Kamm was so peaceful. Spidren's tears were blood, and more magic than normal spidren blood to boot. Because most spidrens could not cry without eventually dying, they had become a fierce, warlike people. But he was a '_good_' spidren, and not fierce or evil or anything! But try telling Tortall that. At least in three weeks he would get out of here, to Carthak, and hopefully to Wos. Wos was the legendary spidren paradise; no one hated spidrens there, and there were blood-trees; trees that would die if they did not excrete blood that was then eaten by the spidrens. Spidrens would not have to hurt anybody to eat there, indeed they would be happy to know that they would for once be helping the world. In Wos, all spidrens became blood-replenishing like him. Also, in Wos humans and spidrens lived in harmony, and in Wos there were magical springs that would change your form to almost whatever you like! Indeed, Wos was the place to be, and he knew that if it existed, he would find it all in Carthak. Kamm shed another tear, knowing that it didn't matter.


End file.
